Three decades after he first wrote about black families for the Urban League, Robert Hill, a senior researcher at the Rockville, Md., research firm Westat, examines how the social and economic status of black families has changed.
Racism remains, he writes. In the last 30 years, "there has been a strong shift from Jim Crow — the overt manifestation of racial hatred by individuals and white society — to James Crow, Esquire — the maintenance of racial inequality through covert processes of structure and institutions,'' he says.
Though blacks are no more likely than whites to mistreat their children, they are over-represented in the foster care system, he says. Nationally, black children comprise about one in five children, but account for almost half of the 550,000 in foster care.
Teen pregnancy contributes to the instability of black families — black teens are about three times more likely than whites to have out-of-wedlock babies, Hill says. Other factors which have hurt black families, he says, include: urban renewal efforts, which displaced many blacks and created segregated high-rise public housing; drug use, and the AIDS epidemic.
Economically, a decline in manufacturing and the rise of service industries meant many black workers went from higher-paying blue-collar jobs to much lower-paying white-collar service jobs, he says.
Blacks have made little progress in narrowing the jobless gap with whites. In June, the national unemployment rate for whites was 5.5 percent; for blacks, 11.8 percent. In 1972, the jobless rate among whites was 5.1 percent; for blacks, 10.4 percent.
And while black families' median income increased, it still remains at only 60 percent of white families', Hill says.
But black families also have demonstrated continued strengths through their strong desire to see children go to college, work ethic, support provided by extended family members and their religious faith, which has helped upward mobility among blacks, Hill says.
| Deborah Kong of The Associated Press (via the Guardian UK) advances the start of the National Urban League's conference and its annual "State of Black America" report with her article, "Report: Rising Incarceration Among Blacks"
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